Volumes have been written about the meaning of “religion” and “spirituality:” In Barack Obama’s campaign both are clearly at work.
Obama is a religious person, having committed to the Christian faith as an adult and chosen to accept religion in ways that had not been part of his upbringing. As a child, he had seen free-thinkers and Muslims as members of his family, so joining the Afro-centric Trinity Church of Christ in Chicago during his 20s was his own choice. That is his religion. His spirituality is another matter.
In his speeches, his inflection and language reflects the Black preaching style of many African-American leaders, but his message is about hope not faith. He does not premise his message upon accepting a set of dogmas or doctrines. Thus, you need not belong to the Church of Christ or even be a Christian to understand what he is saying.
Senator Obama does ask for hope: the aspiration for things as yet unseen or unrealized. Like faith and charity, it is a virtue in Christian teaching. But hope is also the most spiritual of these theological virtues, because it radiates from an individual’s commitments in faith and love into the remaking of the world. Hope is the spiritual force that molds the material reality of daily living. Thus, whether hope is generated from a Christian faith, a Buddhist faith, or faith in humanity and reason, it serves the same function in the public square.
I would argue – using Aquinas’ interpretation of Aristotle – that hope is a necessary dimension of humanity. If a person lives without hope, they are not living a fully human life. The structures and social forces that crush human hope, crush human beings by denying them a most basic freedom: the freedom to make a better world. At this historical juncture, the United States finds itself oppressed by myriad economic and social forces that indicate that the country is going in the wrong direction. For an end to violence in Iraq or the Holy Land, there is no hope on the current road we travel. Ditto for the economy, the decline of the middle class, the effectiveness of education or health care. By tapping into the human capacity to hope, Obama is projecting his spirituality. He does not require listeners to accept this faith, but allows them to find a common vision that nourishes their own spirituality.
Of course, he is not the first presidential candidate to have projected a healthy spirituality, but he is the best at it among the current crop. He may also have changed the meaning of “faith and politics” into “spirituality and politics” for a long time to come.
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